Good morning, friends, and happy hump day. Before we get underway, a quick note that we will not be publishing EnterprisePM this afternoon so that the whole team can get together with our friends at Inktank for our annual Christmas / end-of-year get-together on the roof of Enterprise World Headquarters.

EnterprisePM will be back in your inboxes at its appointed hour tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, we hope you’re looking forward to your own office Christmas party — and that it isn’t, you know, an Office Christmas Party.

HAPPENING TODAY-

Egypt Economic Summit takes place today at the St. Regis Hotel. The one-day event will feature a range of panelists from institutions including CIB, EFG Hermes, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, Eastern Company, Oriental Weavers, Microsoft and Danone, among others. The full agenda is here (pdf).

Steel license inquiry session today: Companies interested in bidding for a new steel manufacturing license from the Industrial Development Authority will get responses to their inquiries on the terms of the license today. The authority will open the door for bidding in February.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is in Cyprus today for talks with his Cypriot counterpart, according to a statement, which did not specify the issues on which the sit-down would focus. Egypt and Cyprus work closely together on everything from energy to maritime security.

PSA- More progress updates on the Ring Road: Construction on bus rapid transit (BRT) stops, pedestrian bridges and tunnels on the Ring Road will begin next week, Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir said yesterday, according to Al Borsa. The BRT lanes in the Middle Ring Road are just about finished, El Wazir said earlier this week. The bus rapid transit system comes as part of the larger upgrade and expansion of the Ring Road, which intends to widen the freeway and add extensions to ease traffic congestion. The BRT also aims to replace more disruptive public transport on the freeway like microbuses.

Also moving along: Work on the new Adly Mansour bridge in Tenth of Ramadan, as well as another bridge atop the Saad El Din Shazly tunnel and the intersection between the Autostrad and the Ring Road, are now complete, El Wazir added.

CORRECTION- In yesterday’s edition of EnterpriseAM, we incorrectly said that the Abu Qir metro will connect Abu Qir to Cairo’s Ramses Station. The line will connect Abu Qir to Alexandria’s Mahatet Masr. Ramses station is commonly and colloquially referred to as Masr Station. The story has been corrected on our website. H/t to sharp-eyed readers Khaled G. and Shehab Z for the tip.

Across the pond: The US Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meets today and tomorrow, during which the Fed is widely expected to announce it will taper its bond-buying program at a faster rate and telegraph a planned interest rate hike next year. The meeting comes after US inflation soared to its highest annual pace since 1982.

The outcome of the Fed’s meeting could play into the Central Bank of Egypt’s calculations on interest rates here at home when its monetary policy committee meets at the end of the week. As it currently stands, the consensus in our customary poll is that the CBE will hold rates steady at its final policy meeting of the year due to uncertainty over foreign inflows and inflation. A Reuters poll out yesterday pointed to the same consensus, with all those surveyed predicting a hold.

ALSO-

• The UN Convention Against Corruption in Sharm El Sheikh is on its second day today. The event wraps this coming Friday, 17 December.
• The Food Africa expo wraps later today at the Egypt International Exhibition Center, after kicking off on Sunday.
• The Arab Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Aswan is underway and runs until Thursday.

FOR TOMORROW-

Cairo-based joint stock companies and investment companies have until tomorrow to register for the government’s e-invoicing platform.

SIGN OF THE TIMES- Elon Musk is Time’s Person of the Year: Time magazine has named Elon Musk its “Person of the Year'' after a busy — and admittedly momentous — year for the world’s richest person. A quick rundown of the year of Musk: The maverick added USD 100 bn to his wealth to surpass Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and his EV company Tesla hit a market cap of USD 1 tn.

ENERGY WATCH-

Germany shuns Nord Stream 2, sending gas futures soaring: European gas futures surged yesterday to their highest levels since early October after German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline would not be permitted in its current form because it does not comply with EU laws, the Financial Times reports. Benchmark futures for January delivery surged. As we suggested last month, this isn’t great news for Europe this winter, but could be a boost for Egypt’s ambitions as a regional energy hub.

Throw in a drop in oil production and you have Saudi ringing the energy crisis alarm: Global oil production could drop 30% by the end of the decade — with daily output falling by 30 mn bbl — due to decreased spending on fossil fuels, potentially resulting in an “energy crisis,” Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Abdulaziz Bin Salman said, according to Bloomberg reports. Global spending on oil production has been on the decline in recent years, and recent climate pledges are expected to push figures down even further.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

EgyptAir will resume weekly flights between Cairo and Johannesburg on Thursday, 16 December, the airline said Thursday. Flights were suspended from South Africa and six other countries at the end of November to prevent the Omicron covid-19 variant from entering Egypt. Current precautionary measures for travelers entering Egypt from South Africa will remain in place.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

*** It’s Going Green day — your weekly briefing of all things green in Egypt: Enterprise’s green economy vertical focuses each Tuesday on the business of renewable energy and sustainable practices in Egypt, everything from solar and wind energy through to water, waste management, sustainable building practices and how you can make your business greener, whatever the sector.

In today’s issue: A report from the International Energy Agency forecasts that Egypt’s renewable capacity will rise by 68% or 4 GW over the coming five years, led primarily by growth in our wind energy capacity. Although the pace of growth in renewables is not particularly swift, considering the timeline, the expansion of renewables must be balanced with the prospect of a supply glut, which has hurt projects in the past.